Integrated circuits having devices which are susceptible to having quasi-breakdown of a gate dielectric.
One of the things that happens when integrated circuits are put into a system is that the system fails if one of the integrated circuits fail. It is desirable that the system failures be avoided and if not completely avoided, predicted, so that anticipatory repairs can be done to avoid a failure at a critical moment. Generally, integrated circuits are highly reliable and systems are reliable, but not completely so. Integrated circuits do fail, and when that happens, the system will likely fail also. Sometimes these system failures can lead to major consequential issues. Simple examples would be automobile failure. Perhaps a more critical failure would be in medical equipment or military hardware. These are examples where equipment may be a critical link in a function where lives may be at stake. If there is a warning that it may fail, then a repair can be performed prior to the critical usage. Another potential value in being able to predict a failure would be to be readying a redundant system where one may not have been automatically available or ensuring the availability of a spare to quickly replace the system immediately upon its failure. Another potential use would be being able to make design corrections before very many system failures occur because information that system failures were imminent would be available Design fixes could be made so that newly designed replacements could be made ready before system failures actually began occurring. Accordingly, there is a need for the ability to anticipate when an IC will fail and particularly beneficial when it can be specifically predicted with respect to a specific device when the device is already in a system.